| Mount Arethusa |
September 2006 |
| Elevation: 2900m | Gain: 750m | Difficulty level: Hard |
| Total trip time: 5.5 hours | Ascent time: 2.5 hrs | Conditions: Dry |
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Parking: 1.4 km from the Highwood Meadows (Tyrwhitt/Ptarmigan Cirque) parking lot, look for a turn off to the left. This isn't really a road, but you can see tire marks in the grass. The 'road' ends at the trail head. | |
| Mount Arethusa is dwarfed by neighbouring Mount Rae, but this does not detract from the enjoyment. It is probably one of the hardest scrambles in the Book of Scrambles, and has lots of interesting sections. The extremely fast, albeit annoying, approach means more time spent on the ridge! Depending on conditions and comfort level, this scramble starts to overlap with mountaineering. Rope may be beneficial if you descend via the gulley. | ||
| ROUTE | |
| Follow the well-worn forest trail until Mount Arethusa comes into view. Try and stay to the left of the creek gully since this will shorten the approach. The route is obvious, but you will want to head to the right of the large summit block. The ascent is a steep scree-filled slog that is thankfully over in under an hour. | |
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| The ridge itself is pleasantly exposed, but until the crux, there is nothing especially terrifying assuming you are comfortable with difficult scrambles. |
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The crux generates a moments pause. It involves downclimbing onto a one square foot ledge which sharply drops on one side, while the other side forms the steep chimney that has to be downclimbed. One can't help but imagine that falling and missing the ledge would not be an enjoyable experience.
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| Once past the crux, even though the ridge is exposed, everything seems relaxing in a relative sense. At one point the path requires a descent and traverse to the left for the ridge. The view from the top is nothing special but the enjoyment on Arethusa lies in the scrambling itself. | |
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Although the crux is 'interesting' the choice of descent route defines the true difficulty of this hike. I still have trepidations with respect to the gully descent route. If I did Arethusa again, I would probably return using the approach path. Kane refers to a descent route (see below) which is in the first gully just before the summit. Oddly enough the Book of Scrambles makes it sound uneventful other than for a cryptic statement referring to bits of rope and slings left behind by previous climbers |
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The initial descent into the gully consists of scrambling down steep slabs. This would be exceedingly hazardous if the rock was even a bit wet. Indeed someone had left 10 ft of torn rope at the top of the slabs. Once in the gully itself, bits of rope and slings are testament to the difficulty of this descent route.
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Some people refer disparagingly to groups that used
rope on the way down. *shrug* Just because you can run across a 6 lane highway
doesn't mean you should avoid the pedestrian overpass.
Fortunately, on this day, the rock was dry and so it was an 'interesting' descent with only a few terrifying moments. There are sections of the gulley which are sufficiently steep, and it is worth ascending along the wall and traversing. These points will be obvious. |
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